


Backpacking

by Tyberius



Category: Blade (Movie Series), Blade II
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drug Use, Friendship, Genetic Engineering, M/M, Tagging as I go, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-09
Updated: 2014-11-29
Packaged: 2018-01-15 04:56:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1292233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tyberius/pseuds/Tyberius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scud goes backpacking in Eastern Europe and things take the most unexpected turns.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

The true power of the Vampire Nation laid in Prague.  
At the headquarters of Caliban Industries resided Overlord Eli Damaskinos.

Damaskinos had seen the centuries. He'd seen human empires rise and fall while his regency remained unchanged.  
Now the time to change the old order of the world had come.

A new pure race of vampires without hereditary weaknesses would become. Strong and perfect, begotten from Damaskinos' own flesh.  
The first vampires in ancient Mesopotamia eight thousand years ago had been immortal daywalkers without the weaknesses to garlic and silver. They would become like them again.

Damaskinos let his scientist draw another blood sample from him. 

As the scientist had left, Karel Kounen put down the results he'd been studying and stepped out of his dark background corner.

"We should use the Daywalker", Kounen said. "The answer is in his DNA. That's the easiest and fastest approach. We need to sequence his DNA, compare his DNA to ou... yours. Eventually we'll find out what makes him a Daywalker.  
Also we should breed him with different pureblood females and see what offspring comes up. It could also be tried to breed him with human females, even though it's most likely impossible.  
Additionally I think we should put more effort into uncovering his origins and interrogate Whistler about it. Was the Daywalker born this way or bitten? If we could find the vampire that created him ..."

"He isn't purebred! The new race will be pureblood", Damaskinos interrupted him. "Not tainted by impure DNA."


	2. Chapter 2

Scud the Stud was in seventh heaven.  
Drunk.  
Stoned.  
Two hot chicks all over him. Trim toned bodies with awesome asses.  
Some obscure Romanian band was on stage and punk rock blasted from the speakers.

He fuckin' loved Bukarest.  
He'd arrived today, just in time for the opening night of the Open Flair Festival.  
Now he was right there, drinking beer and dancing with Janet and Chrissy whom he'd met a few hours ago on the tram.

Two hotties. From Melbourne or something. Backpacking in eastern europe, too. Whatever, didn't matter. He would get so lucky tonight, that was all he was interested in.  
They were cute girls with long dreads, many necklaces and friendship bracelets, tight shirts, baggy jeans and chucks.  
Chrissy was a fiery redhead with amazing golden cat-like eyes. Of course he knew that were contacts, but it looked cute and he didn't care.  
Janet had black hair and the lightest green eyes he'd ever seen. She had one fucking sexy tongue piercing.  
Both girls skin was milky white like they hadn't gotten to enjoy the sun and the summer yet.

He found himself drooling as Janet leaned close to Chrissy and kissed her, open-mouthed with lots of tongue. Scud stared at the piercing, thinking how great it would feel on his cock when she sucked him, then he placed a hand on each of their asses and ground his hips against them.  
Chrissy smiled at him and kissed him. He thought for a moment that her lips felt strangely cold, but the sensation quickly vanished and slipped away from his attention as Janet said, "Let's go somewhere more ... private ..."

Scud had pitched his tent on a meadow next to the festival ground. They quickly made their way there through the dancing, drinking crowd. Kissing and groping while they stumbled forward.  
Impatiently they fumbled their way into the tent, nearly tearing it down in doing so. The lights of the festival made it bright enough inside to see each other quite well. Even better. Would be a shame if he had to enjoy them by sense of touch only. Scud wasn't much for sex in the dark, he liked to see a girl's body.

Janet and Chrissy pushed him down to lay on his back on his crumpled sleeping bag.  
Happily grinning at them, he laid back and put his arms behind his head.  
Janet buttoned his shirt open and pushed it away. Her pale hands touched his chest.  
Chrissy opened his belt and fly. She pushed his pants down and immediately went for his cock.  
Moaning, Scud closed his eyes.

But instead of the caresses Scud expected, he heard Janet say in a strangely animalistic voice, "He smells so tasty. Where do we start?"

Finding it a bit strange, he opened his eyes.  
Janet smiled at him, showing two long, pointy fangs that hadn't been there before.

"What the fuck ...?"

Scud wanted to get up, but they just held him down. They were so strong he could barely move at all. Their small hands were suddenly icy cold and unmovable.

Then everything went to hell within the blink of an eye.

Their fingernails fucking morphed into claws. Claws that tore into his skin, leaving bloody gashes all over his belly and chest. Scud screamed in pain.

To do so the bitches had to loosen their grip on him. Scud used it and struck out. His fist hit Chrissy's jaw with a satisfying crunch.

But she just laughed. "Ain't he cute?"  
And she hit him back.

Scud's terror filled world nearly went black at the impact.

@@@

Blade hurried through the crowd. He'd momentarily lost the two female vampires in the mass of the dancing humans and now he'd spotted them again as they were luring their prey into a tent on a nearby meadow.

This festival was a dead end, no vampire hangout, but truly a gathering of humans intent on getting alcohol poisoning to the sounds of bad Romanian punk rock. He wouldn't find a lead to Whistler here.  
He'd been on his way out when he'd seen a young white man with two suckheads. It seemed like they didn't hunt by luring humans to their places, but instead had accompanied him to the festival. That was a new approach.

Blade pushed a few people away and got splashed with beer in reward. He ignored it and the angry yells directed at him.  
Finally he reached the meadow. He could already smell the blood and sprinted towards the tent.

He cut it open with a single swipe of his sword.  
One vampire jumped a few meters away. The other, a redhead, stayed by their prey where she'd been about to sink her fangs into him and only turned around to hiss at Blade. 

The man screamed. His eyes flickered between Blade and the vampires and focused on Blade, panic and the plea for help in his gaze. He was on the ground, half naked and smeared with blood. They had torn into his belly and chest with their claws. There were no bite wounds on him. He tried to get up but only managed to weakly scramble backwards, his lowered pants twisted around his thighs hindering him further.  
Something about sight of naked bloody man made Blade think sexy for a second, but he quickly shoved that thought away under restraint.  
"Shit, dude, do something! Get those bitches off me! They're crazy!" the man yelled.

"Daywalker!" one vampire yelled and they jumped at Blade in a blur of claws and teeth.

Blade sidestepped and decapitated the black-haired one with a precise stroke of his sword.

Her scorching, crumbling head landed next to the man. He screamed again.

The redhead got in a kick to Blade's ribs, but he grabbed her ankle with his free hand and twisted hard, sending her down. Her leg crunched as bones broke and joints dislocated.

Blade put his sword back into its sheath.

"Go to hell," the vampire snarled as he grabbed her by the neck and lifted her off the ground.

"You go first." Blade smiled evilly at her.  
Acting on a sudden impulse, he ripped her fangs out. Blood gushed from her mouth as she howled in pain.  
He finished her off with a stake. She burned and crumbled to ash.

Blade turned around to the man. He was trembling and pale by now.

"Wow, thanks, you sure did something 'bout them! Who the fuck were those bitches?" His voice sounded strained and weak.

"Vampires."  
Blade stepped closer to him.  
"Have you been bitten?"  
He looked him over again to make sure there were really no bites as he'd thought at first look. The only injuries were the scratches on the man's chest and belly. Blood was smeared down from them to his genitals and thighs.

"What ... Vampires ... Shit ... Uh, no, they didn't bite me ..."

Blade stopped next to him.  
"A reminder not to pick up suckheads again."  
He dropped the bloody fangs into the man's hand. The man stared at Blade, then at the fangs and finally back at Blade. With a satisfied expression, he clutched the teeth tightly in his hand.

"Always thought the slayer was some blonde chick ..." the man slurred and suddenly passed out.

Slayer? Blade had no idea what he was talking about. Whatever. Didn't matter.  
He just looked at the man for a moment, then crouched down by him and felt his pulse. Weak. The injuries were worse than they had seemed at first, though they weren't deep enough to disembowel. But if he just left him here, he wouldn't make it.

Blade looked around. People were still dancing and drinking on the festival ground. No one had noticed a thing so far.

Not wanting to leave evidence of what took place here behind, he quickly gathered the man's things and stuffed them into the guy's backpack. He slipped the fallen down fangs into his own pocket to give them back to him later.  
Then he picked the unconscious man up. 

The man moved a little and moaned softly.  
His eyes fluttered open.

"Hurts ..." he whimpered.

"What are you doing ... Shit ..." He sounded somewhat panicking. He struggled and groaned in pain.

"Carrying you to my car."

The man somewhat relaxed.

Blade made it quickly to his Dodge. He'd parked at some distance from the festival area on a dark roadside.

He placed the man on the ground on the tent, then dropped the man's stuff into the trunk and got out a plastic cover.

The man struggled, even though he could barely see a thing in the dark.  
"Hey, what's that for? You ... You ain't gonna kill me, right? Please, man ..."

"Shut up."  
Blade picked the man up.  
He laid him on the backseat on the plastic.

"Who are you?" the man asked as Blade was leaning over him.

"My name is Blade."

"Hi, I'm Scud."

"Listen, Scud, I'm gonna help you. You keep still and don't bleed all over my seats."

"Sure."  
Scud nodded. His blue eyes stared at Blade pleadingly and thankfully.

Blade crammed the torn tent, the sleeping bag and mat into a big garbage bag and put it into the trunk. He closed the door and got behind the wheel, placing his coat and sword on the passenger seat. He sped away from the festival.  
He had to drive through Bukarest and then beyond the northern outskirts of the city.  
The scent of Scud's blood filled the car and clung to him where it was smeared on his clothes and armor. Intense, tasty and sensual, tugging at Blade's self control.

An hour later he reached his destination.  
A desolate factory, left to decay since the end of the socialist era.

Blade got Scud out of the car and placed him on the big steel table.

Scud winced at the contact with the cool surface. He looked around, panicking, even more so as Blade switched on the lights and he got a good glimpse of the place.

"Hey what are you doing? Why I'm on a table? That can't be good ..."

"Get a grip," Blade growled at him. He took off his sunglasses and gloves and some of his weapons, placing everything well out of Scud's reach.  
He got the medical supplies. Karen Jenson had provided him with an extensive, up to date collection, nothing like the scraps Whistler and he used to have.

Scud was surprisingly compliant as he stripped him naked. Blade also checked him for a vampire glyph while doing do.  
Familiars were mostly tattooed on the neck or wrist, but there were exceptions and the glyph could be anywhere.  
He found none.

Then as he slipped on surgical gloves, Scud looked at him with big, panicked eyes, but kept silent.

"Scud, I have to clean and stitch your wounds."

Scud whimpered and managed to look even more panicked.

The well stocked medical supplies for once included several kinds of painkillers, so Blade asked, "Do you want a painkiller?"

Scud nodded eagerly.  
"Oh, yes, please."

Blade injected him with a dose.  
While he waited for it to kick in, he considered how to best treat the wounds. It were ten long deep cuts on the belly and chest, still bleeding.

He cleaned the surrounding skin with disinfectant and rinsed the cuts with sterile saline solution and disinfectant.

Scud whimpered and complained that it hurt.

"Sissy," Blade hissed.

It didn't keep Scud from whining. When he started to close the first cut, the complaints got only worse and Scud even screamed.  
Halfway through stitching the first cut, Scud passed out. This made things a lot easier. No more twitching, whimpering and screaming.

When Blade had finished stitching all the wounds, he bandaged the injuries and gave him an antibiotics injection.

Naked Scud was a tantalizing sight.  
His pale skin was smeared with blood. He had even gotten some drops on his stubbly cheeks. His dark brown hair was tousled and longish.  
His body was in a somewhat decent shape, but not like he worked out. A little fat padded around the middle.  
Blade's gaze wandered to Scud's exposed genitals. Nicely big cock and balls. He would've liked to do some touching ... maybe the opportunity would arise. Or not ... he shouldn't think like this.

Blade slipped the bloody gloves off, tossing them away. He cleaned all the blood from Scud's body, then picked him up and carried him into his sleeping area where he laid him on the bed.

Blade went to take his serum. First the pain and then the calmness and sated feeling put him back into focus.

After putting the medical supplies away and cleaning the table, he went through Scud's things.  
Asides from dirty clothes, a few toiletries, a roll of toilet paper, a simple, homemade-looking camping stove and pot, two Austrian beer cans and a bag of potato chips, he found an american passport, a MasterCard, some money, an euro rail ticket, a camera, a film canister filled with marihuana, tobacco, rizlas, a crumbled city map of Sofia and an envelope with photos.  
He flipped open the passport. Joshua Frohmeyer, 30 years old, born in New York.  
The photos showed partying and drunk people, naked tits, two women kissing, some blond guy rolling around naked on a bed and someone's hard cock. Scud himself was only on a few of the photos. On one he was obviously very drunk, another showed his naked ass. Grinning, Blade put the pictures aside.

He went to throw the garbage bag with Scud's tent, sleeping bag and pad on the trash pile outside and put Scud's bloody clothes in the bathroom for later washing.

Then he checked on Scud. He found him asleep and without any sign of infection, so it was by now sure he hadn't gotten the virus from the two suckheads.


	3. Chapter 3

As Scud woke up he was sure he'd had a really bad trip last night even though he couldn't remember taking anything strange. Then he noticed his sleeping pad was strangely soft and comfortable and the familiar pot smell of his sleeping bag was gone. Instead he smelled a sexy male musky scent.  
Strange ...  
As he tried to roll over, he felt pain and looked down at himself under the covers.  
Bandages around his stomach and chest.  
And he was naked. 

No, no bad trip, even worse. Reality.  
Fucking shit.

He looked around. He laid in a bed in some place he'd never seen before. It wasn't a room, more like the interior of some ... industrial structure. The bed was in the dark secluded area between two walls and some giant machines.

He remembered Janet and Chrissy and how they fucking attacked him quite well, but after that things were kinda blurry.  
Screams, something burning, ash, a blurr of black leather and shiny weapons.

What the hell had happened? Had he run into two psychos? Kinda like female serial killers?

As his memories cleared, strange things came up.  
She'd fucking ... exploded into yellow light and black dust ... The way it only happened in movies.

Then he remembered pointed teeth ... fangs ...

Moving and trying to sit up, he found his passport and money on the nightstand. And two fangs, laying next to the folded bills.

_A reminder not to pick up vampires again ..._

Now all memories came back and he remembered everything.

The two bitches had been fucking vampires. Yes, vampires.  
The man who'd saved him from them and then brought him here.  
Blade. Kinda strange name.

Scud picked up the two teeth and inspected them closely. They were sharp and pointy, indeed.  
Shit, that was some crazy bullshit.  
 _Would make a nice souvenir on a necklace ..._

Scud felt like someone watched him and looked up.  
Blade stood there in the shadow beneath an overhead gangway.

He stepped closer into the sunlight falling in through some windows outside Scud's field of view. First Scud registered the weapons strapped to his body, a gun and some sort of shiny silvery blades.  
Then he realized he hadn't fully noticed yesterday just how hot the man actually was. Blade was all muscle, but slenderly built and not hugely bulky. He wore a tight black undershirt and loose-fitting black pants made from some shiny, thin material. The clothes showed off his amazing physique.  
Scud's gaze wandered over his naked arms and shoulders down to his slim waist and hips and back upwards, admiring his muscles and the extensive tribal style tattoos on his beautiful dark-brown skin.

"How are you?" Blade asked, coming closer. He moved with power and agility and completely silent.

"Hurts like hell. But I guess I'm actually quite okay considering last night's bitches ..."  
Scud struggled to get up, gasping.

"You should rest." Blade stopped by his side.

Scud looked up at him. Fucking impressive. He couldn't help but stare at Blade's crotch and the way his pants bulged out there. Then his gaze wandered to the big gun strapped to Blade's right hip and thigh. The damn thing looked fucking serious.

"Have to piss," Scud murmured.

Blade helped him up and walked him to the bathroom. Walking hurt his belly and about everywhere else. Blade's close presence provided a pleasant distraction, though, and he gladly lost himself in it.  
Blade's skin felt warm and soft where they touched. As Scud stumbled on the stairs down, Blade caught him. Being so close to him, Scud noticed he smelled really good. And he was even sexier this close up. The muscles of his arms and shoulders felt so firm and powerful and Scud longed to touch his pectorals, too, but he couldn't really think of an excuse to do so when having his arm over Blade's shoulder provided quite sufficient support.  
Blade's face was beautiful, his skin smooth and immaculate. Scud found himself mesmerized by his bright medium-brown eyes which were unusually light for a man of his dark skin color. His full lips were perfectly shaped and tempting Scud to kiss him. He wore a thin, neatly trimmed mustache and a small under lip beard. The tattoos on his shoulders, chest and back continued on the sides and back of his neck up onto his head. His hair was cut in a short flattop that was shaved in back to complement the spiraling tattoos sweeping up to the base of his skull.

_Fucking hot. He's absolutely fucking hot_ , Scud thought.

They reached the bathroom. Scud stumbled in and Blade waited outside. The place was all cracked tiles and bare concrete. The door hung crooked in its hinges and didn't close properly.  
Scud nearly tripped over a bucket with soaking laundry. After pissing, he rinsed his mouth and looked at himself in the mirror above the sink. Kinda looked like after a bad trip.

On the way back to bed he stumbled on the top step, slumping against Blade who caught him in a firm, secure grip. Now their faces were just a few centimeters away, Blade was about his height. Not thinking, just acting he leaned in and kissed Blade. He only realized it might be a bad idea as their lips already touched. But there was no need to worry, Blade reacted enthusiastically ... Only to suddenly pull back and usher him silently to bed.

Scud considered for a moment whether or not this was the moment to feel awkward, then decided not to ponder on it.  
He sat down on the bed and sipped on the glass of water on the nightstand. His backpack lay close by and he got his tobacco and pot out. Slowly and methodically he rolled a spliff.

"So, vampires?" Scud asked as he lit his joint and carefully laid back in bed. Damn, that hurt ...  
He deeply inhaled the sweet pot.

"Yes, they exist. Control big parts of what you consider human society," Blade said. Scud thought he heard disdain in his voice.

"And what's your role in this?"

"I hunt them."

"Wow, that's fucking cool shit. And my luck, I guess."  
Scud took another deep drag of his joint and then held it out to Blade who ignored the offer.  
"So, what else is true? Do zombies exist?" Scud asked playfully.

Blade considered for a moment before answering, "Kinda."

"Come on, you're shittin' me." Scud grinned.

Blade stayed dead serious as he said: "Some call them revenants. Others really say zombies."

Scud grinned even broader.  
"But please tell me there's not gonna be zombie apocalypse one day ..."

Blade gave him a strange look, as if the concept was entirely new to him.

"You know, Dawn Of The Dead, Romero, stuff like that," Scud elaborated.

"They aren't dead. It's a virus. The same one that turns humans into vampires, but something goes wrong during the change."  
Blade was still dead serious and it dawned on Scud that he wasn't joking.  
"No, there's not gonna be an apocalypse. Revenants occur seldom and the vampires kill them. They ain't what you've got to worry about." 

_Damn, that's some strange shit ..._

Scud quietly smoked, watching Blade who in turn eyed him silently.  
When he was finished, he felt sleepy and strangely exhausted. He cuddled up into the pillow and covers that smelled so nicely of Blade and let sleep pull him under.


	4. Chapter 4

Blade watched the sleeping man for a long time before he finally walked away.

He kneeled on his meditation mat to think about what to do with Scud.

He didn't like the idea of leaving Scud alone with all his equipment when he went out on this night's hunt.  
But that was something he should've considered before bringing him here. Now it was too late and he had to do just that, not only today but for some time. Scud was no shape yet to kick him out and wouldn't be too soon.

Maybe spending some time with Scud hadn't to be so bad, at least when considering the sexual options.  
Blade had to admit to himself that he wouldn't mind some sex before their ways parted.

Scud was quite sexy and obviously desired him. He felt inclined to let things unfold and evolve to their mutual enjoyment.  
It was a long time since he'd last had sex, years actually. Now the possibility dangling right in front of him suddenly made him horny and longing for someone's touch. He hadn't felt like this in years ...

He would need to be careful and in control of himself, though.  
Scud had quite surprised him with that kiss. It had felt so good and made him so horny and almost clouded his thinking.  
Yet exactly that was what shouldn't happen again. The virus was in his saliva. Kissing as well as cock sucking bore the risk of infecting Scud with vampirism, albeit low.  
Another risk was to lose control and bite or hurt him with his vampiric strength. That was a matter of self control, though, of mastering the urge to suck blood that came with arousal. Blade had worked at detaching those urges from each other, he wasn't an animal like them. He was sure he could control himself ...

But how did he think this would ever work out?  
Scud had no idea _what_ he was ... A monster ...  
What did he think would happen when Scud found out about his true nature? The desire would be replaced by fear.

And he didn't know if Scud was even the slightest trustworthy which was the biggest problem in this.

All this thinking about his own pleasure when he should be focused on finding Whistler made him feel guilty.  
Whistler was what this whole mission was about. He needed to center his attention on him, not let arousal overwhelm his thoughts and distract him.

Honing in on his plan, he drifted through memories of Whistler, thinking back to the time when Whistler had spared his life and taken him in. He'd taught Blade how to control himself. Not to give in to the thirst and lust and randomly kill humans. How to fight, how to use his vampiric powers and strength.  
Now he would save Whistler from being the monster they were hunting. At all costs.

After his meditation Blade prepared his weapons for the coming night, then he went to finish the soaking laundry.  
He rinsed his shirts, boxers, socks and Scud's pants and boxers and hung them on the clothesline outside. The ancient washing machine in the basement was broken beyond repair. He'd tried to get it working yesterday. Maybe Whistler might have been able to do something with it, but he didn't have that intuition when it came to fixing things like the old man.

Blade collected the things he didn't wanted Scud's hands on, his serum, the lab gear, his weapons, the computer disks, the computer and the medical supplies and locked them into the office room on the top level.  
The money Karen had given him was already well-hidden, 10170 left from once 11.000 dollars. What he'd managed to steal from Frost was already gone, needed to pay for the transfer to Europe and the time in Moscow. The passports and other documents were already hidden, too.  
He also locked the other production hall where the truck was.

Finally he set up the cot and slept until dusk.

@@@

When Scud woke again it was getting dark outside and he was starving.  
He felt more clear than the last time he'd woken up. He hurt like shit which reminded him much more than he wanted how close a call this vampire shit had been. The world wasn't like anything he'd thought so far. Fucking hell, he'd nearly died ... _But I didn't, thanks to Blade._

Yawning, he looked around and considered getting up. It was quite dark in the sleeping area, some lights only came from behind the large machines.  
He searched his backpack for the beer he knew was still in there. When he found it, he happily drank a big gulp.

Suddenly a light went on above him. Startled, he squinted at Blade, who walked towards him.

As his eyes had adjusted to the sudden brightness he leaned back into the pillow and smiled at his savior. He placed the beer can on the nightstand.

Blade was powerful and incredibly sexy. _My hero who saved me ..._

Unlike before Blade now wore sunglasses and a long black leather coat. Damn styly and sexy. Underneath it he wore something with silver buckles that seemed to be a Kevlar vest. He looked fucking good in that attire. 

Scud eyed the weapons he carried. Like earlier, he had a gun, something powerful like a subcompact machine pistol. He suspected a second one was strapped to Blade's other hip.  
Some strange silver things were strapped to his left upper thigh. Scud couldn't really see them, Blade's coat mostly covered them.

"You need another dose of antibiotics," Blade said. "Do you want more painkiller?"

"Sure," Scud eagerly agreed. Painkiller sounded like a fucking fine idea right now.

Blade set a small pouch on the nightstand and pulled out a syringe, a small medication vial and somewhat Scud recognized as a tourniquet on second glance. He filled the syringe.

Scud held out his left arm. Blade tied the bind tightly around his upper arm and swabbed the elbow vein with disinfectant. Blade's fingers felt warm where they touched. He pushed in the needle and injected him.  
It was all quick, professional, efficient moves. It didn't even hurt and Scud quickly felt high. _That's good stuff ..._

Blade leaned over him to remove the tourniquet. This close up he smelled really good ...  
Scud watched him get the second injection ready. The antibiotics went into the other arm, then Blade put some distance between them. He took the pouch and stuff from the nightstand and stepped back.

With the painkiller in his system and working, Scud felt quickly much better.

"Got something to eat? I'm starving," he asked.

"No," Blade simply said.

Scud shrugged. He wondered how that could be, but then again he himself often forgot to go shopping, too.  
Remembering the potato chips he'd bought in Vienna, he pulled his backpack close and found the chips bag. Hungrily, he dug in.

"Where are we?" He mumbled around a mouthful of chips. "That your place?"

Scud felt Blade's gaze on him through the dark glasses.  
"Yes."

Scud rolled a joint and lit it. After a good, deep drag he held it out to Blade.  
"Want some?"

"No."

"What is it?"

"Was a factory," Blade said. "What were you doing at the festival?"  
He got leather gloves from an interior pocket of his coat and put them on.

Scud stuffed more chips into his mouth. Seemed like it was time for Blade to ask some questions. He shrugged.  
"Uh ... Partying? Looking for some ass?"

Blade eyed the chips crumbs falling on his sheets with disgust.  
"You're a long way from home."

"Yeah, I'm from Los Angeles," Scud said. "Needed to get out, though. Get some fucking distance from the bourgeois life. Put in some serious chill time. You know, get the chance to think about what I really wanna do in life. My job sucked. My girlfriend and friends were crazy. Family, too. So needed to get out and decided to go on a backpacking trip in eastern Europe. I've been to Bulgaria, Austria and Germany already. Wanted to travel Ukraine, too, but I forgot to request a visa in time. Whatever, can always do that later ..."

That sounded so bullshit Blade actually believed him.  
"Is someone going to miss you if you don't show up within the next few days?"

"Nah, I haven't made any friends here yet. And I didn't tell the guys in Vienna where I went," Scud said. That wasn't what he wanted to talk about now though. He was fucking curious about Blade and lots of things.  
"So you hunt vampires? How does it work? How many of them are around?"

"They're everywhere. They have their claws into politics, economics, the healthcare system, into everything. Blood banks in every major city are owned by them. And it's getting worse. I take out the big motherfuckers, fuck up their operations." 

"How do you kill them? It what they say in the movies and books true?"

Blade briefly smiled.  
"Sunlight, garlic and silver kill them. Decapitation and a bullet in the head or heart usually do. To be sure use silver for it. Crosses, holy water and wooden stakes are bullshit."

"And does their bites turn humans into vampires? Or is shit like ingesting the vampire's blood needed?" Scud thought about Buffy and Interview with a Vampire.

"As I said, vampirism is a virus. It's carried in the saliva of vampires and transmitted into the human's bloodstream with the sucking of blood. One bite is enough to turn anyone."

Damn, if Janet and Chrissy had gotten their fangs into him ... Scud shuddered at the thought and hastily pushed it aside.

"Are they immortal?"

"Purebloods age slower than humans and live for centuries. A human who was turned by a bite claims to be truly immortal. But they ain't. I kill them. Each one who gave me this bullshit has tasted the end of my sword."

"Purebloods?" Scud was confused.

"Born vampires ..."

"Those things can be born?" Scud stared at him wide-eyed.

"They aren't 'undead' or something like that as it's in the legends. Purebloods can reproduce in a sexual way, turned vampires not. The Purebloods are on top of the vampire society."

Scud nodded and took another deep drag of his spliff. That was fucking strange.

"I'm going out. You stay inside and keep quiet," Blade abruptly changed the topic. "Make sure the lights can't be seen from the outside. Here's a flashlight." He got one from his pocket. "Lights are only in this area, the rest of the building has none, power comes from a diesel generator and batteries, currently it's batteries only. You don't touch and fuck up anything. If someone shows up, you hide. Got it?"  
Blade stared at him sternly and walked up to the side of the bed, placing the flashlight on the nightstand. He pulled a small pistol from his waistband and handed it to Scud. Their fingers brushed against each other as Scud took it. The leather of Blade's glove felt smooth and cool.

"In case of vampires. Know how that works?"

"'Course the Scudster knows."  
Scud grinned as he examined the pistol.  
"Damn cool piece, by the way. Who did it?" The Glock was expertly modified, a piece of art.

Blade didn't answer, he just said, "It's loaded with silver hollow points filled with garlic essence and silver nitrate."

"Thanks. And how do I recognize vampires?" Scud asked, inspecting the gun further, checking the full clip.

"The way they smell and move. They have fangs and want to bite you ..."

Scud looked up, eying the other man suspiciously. Was Blade joking with him by stating the obvious? He wasn't sure.

"Their body temperature is 10 degree Celsius, so they feel cold to the touch ..."

"How is that possible?" he interrupted Blade. "Why didn't I notice it when I touched those damn cunts?"

"They've been luring you in, kinda hypnotized you."

Now that really freaked out Scud, he didn't show it though.  
"Damn. They all can do that?"

"No."  
Blade placed a small box on the nightstand.  
"More bullets."

"So you're gonna kill vamps tonight?" Scud asked him.

"Yes." Blade smiled, more evilly than friendly, and walked away. Scud heard him go downstairs, then a car engine roared alive and the car drove off.

_I've dropped right into the coolest shit ever ..._


	5. Chapter 5

Blade stopped at the big supermarket he'd noticed when he'd driven past it yesterday.

The large store promised anonymity. Last thing he needed was some familiar seeing him here.  
Luckily it was quite crowded, which also promised anonymity.

He scented the air. No smell of vampire.

Blade looked around, considering what to buy and thinking he should've asked Scud what he wanted to eat.  
It felt strange and uncomfortable to be here. He hadn't been to a supermarket to buy human food since he'd left Karen in the States six month ago.

Quickly he grabbed spaghetti, ketchup, canned sausages, ramen, chocolate, cereal, UHT milk, apples, bananas, coke and beer, stuff like Whistler had usually gotten it, and headed to the register with the shortest waiting line.

The clerk eyed him strangely, but there was no recognition in her gaze and he couldn't see a glyph or smell vampire on her. When he was sure she wasn't a familiar, he didn't pay her any more attention. This woman didn't take part in the true workings of the world.

@@@

Meanwhile, Scud felt up to a little exploring after finishing his joint. He was nicely high from the pot and the painkiller and the pain was numbed well.  
He got up and put on his shoes and the cleanest of his four pairs of boxers, keeping the waistband low on his hips below the bandages.

Grabbing the flashlight and the gun, he walked away from the sleeping area to get an overview.

The building was giant. It looked like some kind of machine parts production. The factory seemed to consist of a huge area with many buildings, but he didn't feel up to taking a look at those today.

He returned to the sleeping area where clothes hung from a cross-beam and some boxes were stacked in a corner.  
The clothing was all black asides from a few red shirts. Sleek stuff. Much leather, kinda kinky. Hell, there was even some shiny black plastic stuff.  
Three pairs of black lace boots were neatly lined up on the floor. One pair had silver studs and plating on the toe and heel. Damn kinky, too.  
Scud grinned as he touched the smooth leather of a jacket and pants. He inspected a stiff, figure hugging leather vest closer and realized it was some sort of light body armor, made not to look like one so it could be worn without attracting attention. Probably not strong enough to hold a bullet, it would lessen the force of a punch. The chest was slightly plated, the rest more flexible. Fucking cool piece.

Scud opened a few boxes. He found fur which turned out to be one of those funny uschanka things. Warm pullovers, gloves, down jacket, long johns, fur boots, insulated pants. This stuff didn't look nearly as cool and nice as the other clothes.

He went downstairs where something like a living area and the bathroom he already knew were. A dim light flickered there.  
There were two tables and a few chairs and car stuff. One table and all the chairs were old, shitty stuff, like Blade had found them somewhere in the factory. The other table was stainless steel and looked newer. Scud suddenly remembered that was where Blade had placed him last night to treat his injuries. Not what he wanted to think about now.  
He turned away to look at the car tools on the old table. They were mostly old, from different manufacturers, states and overseas.  
Then there were canisters of gas stacked by a nearby pillar. But no more gear around which had Scud wondering. There had to be more stuff than just that.

Walking around further he only found a cot with a pillow and a duvet. Had to be where Blade slept.  
 _Let's hope he's gonna let me keep the bed for a while longer,_ he thought grinning.

Scud walked away from the lit area into the dark.  
Kinda creepy with all that corroding machines, shadows, broken windows and faint sounds the wind was creating.  
The ground was littered with scraps and rusty machine parts. He poked some stuff with the toe of his left shoe. Cool stuff, wasn't the garbage it looked at first glance. Many of the parts could still be used. He just wasn't sure yet for what.

Even more shit was scattered around by a stairway down to a basement.  
A moldy damp smell wafted upwards from there. The shine of his flashlight didn't penetrate the dark far enough to get a really good glimpse of what was down there.  
Whatever. He postponed exploring there to later, maybe during the daytime.

He went upstairs to the many walkways there and wandered around between the machines.  
And then further upstairs beyond the level where the sleeping area was.

Scud was getting tired and close to calling it quits when he came across a locked door on the top level.  
He was curious, especially since the lock wasn't dusty so it had been used recently. He refrained from picking it, though, he didn't want to piss Blade off. He had an idea what was inside anyway. Weaponry and the other stuff he hadn't found so far.

By now he felt like shit from the little physical activity and had to go back to bed.  
Every position but laying on his back was uncomfortable.  
Smoking a cigarette, he thought about Blade. So damn fucking hot ... He knew he was getting a crush here and he had every intention of enjoying it as much as possible.  
 _And how he'd killed the vampire bitches and saved my ass ... Cooler than cool ... a vampire hunter ... That's fucking surreal ..._

@@@

Preparation and planning were essential. Study the enemy before the attack.  
Whistler had taught him that and it was now more important than ever. 

Blade knew that Whistler was in Bucharest, but the Moscow vampire he'd interrogated about it hadn't gone into more detail, no matter what Blade had done to him.  
So he now needed to find out more before he started killing the local suckheads.

The structure of the vampire society was way more complex than they knew about and he was getting the idea that their power structures had many yet unknown components to them. There seemed to be a power that stood above local leaders like Frost and the heads of the pureblood houses.

Blade crept deeper into the shadows he was hiding in to watch the Bucharest blood bank.

He was watching and memorizing the vampires and their familiars, listening to them, learning about the places he would seek out and destroy, planning his approach.  
The blood bank would be one of the last places to take down. Soon he would start with their bars and minor safehouses and target on the familiars.  
When the night grew late, he followed some of them.

By the time the suckheads had to crawl back into their daytime hidey holes, he'd formulated his plan and was returning to the abandoned factory.

The vampires and their bitches in Moscow had learned to fear the Daywalker more than anything else after they'd initially considered him some joke or even a myth.  
It would go the same here.

And then he would finally rescue Whistler.

He missed him so much. It annoyed Blade and made him sick with worry that things didn't progress faster. He was searching for Whistler since months already. The thought what the fucking suckheads might be doing to him was sickening.  
The whole situation was.  
And the thought of what he would have to do when he finally found him was beyond painful.

Killing every suckhead and familiar in this damn city would make everything a little more bearable.

He drove into the ruins of production hall three, from the morning sun's early light back into the shadows.

Scud walked down the stairs from the upper walkways as he heard the car's engine.  
He'd gotten up an hour ago and been looking around again. The old machines were way interesting.

Blade parked in the living area by the tables and Scud found himself fucking drooling over his car.  
Damn fucking sexy! A '68 Dodge Charger! And it looked like there were some modifications, too.

Excited, Scud tried to hurry down the rest of the stairs, but his injuries stopped him. With a slightly pained expression he continued at a more leisure speed.

"Good morning, my hero! How was your night of vampire killing?" he called as Blade got out of the car.

"Wow, you got yourself one hell of a beauty there! If you want me to, I could do a few things to her ... Like cranking up that horsepower a little ..." Scud touched the hood.

"I like the Dodge as it is. Working," Blade said sternly, emphasizing the last word.  
Nobody but Whistler got under the hood of the Dodge. 

Scud smiled.  
"Yo, man, chill, just a suggestion."  
He ran his hand in admiration along the side of the car.  
"But don't worry cause you think I'm talking shit. The Scudster knows how to do such things ..."

Blade got his weapons from the backseat and placed them on the steel table.

Scud's eyes widened as he saw the sword. The shotgun was nice, too, but somehow not nearly as fascinating, even though it was a Benelli M3, modified to what seemed to be firing ... stakes ... as well as ammo.  
But a fucking sword. So cool.  
"That's one cool sword! Did you kill some vampires with it tonight?"  
Scud reached out for the weapon.

"Don't touch the sword," Blade said sternly.  
He got the supermarket bag from the trunk and handed it to Scud.

"Cool, thanks!" Scud looked quickly into the bag, then longingly back at the sword. He sat the bag aside. Too bad Blade sounded quite serious about the no touching stuff. Then again, there were always more chances later ...  
Now he was getting distracted by Blade taking off his coat anyway. Not only because Blade was so damn hot and the well-fitting Kevlar vest and shiny thin fabric of his pants accentuated his perfect figure so well, but also because Scud got the chance to clearly see his weapons and gadgets. Fucking cool stuff.  
Stakes strapped to his upper thigh. Scud remembered that Blade had said silver killed vampires and assumed the stakes were made from it.  
Even with getting a good look at the two big guns now, he couldn't tell for sure what they were. Maybe MAC-11 or MAC-10 with a different front.  
The other stuff was mostly ammo. Some sort of silvery disk-shaped thing he suspected to be some kind of throwing weapon. What was in the vest's small pockets and another small pocket at Blade's belt, he couldn't tell.

Blade took off his shades and placed them on the table, too.

"Wanna know what I've been wonderin' about?" Scud asked him.  
Blade didn't say anything, but Scud told him nevertheless, "That I got involved with vampires in the country of Dracula!"  
Scud laughed.  
"Is that shit actually true? Is there truly a Dracula in Transylvania?" 

"That's what they want you to believe. But it's bullshit. There ain't a Dracula. Bram Stoker created the figure for his novel and derived the name from Vlad III. Draculea. His inspiration he got from romanian folklore. Vampires live in Romania and every other country since centuries." Blade took off his Kevlar vest. The black shirt he wore underneath clung tightly to his body. Scud's eyes roamed over bulging biceps and pectorals, tight stomach muscles and slim waist. Damn, he longed to touch.

"Kinda makes sense if they wanna keep their existence a secret," he said. The mention of Vlad Draculea reminded him of those urban legend style rumors you heard now and then. "Was Vlad a vampire? The first vampire? And is that empaling stuff true?"

"One has little to do with the other. He wasn't a vampire, but he truly executed his enemies by empaling them," Blade said. This stuff was mostly irrelevant.  
He knew actually important things about vampire history and legends from the book of Erebus, but didn't tell. After facing the reality of LaMagra he'd read Frost's whole translation. Time would tell if that knowledge would ever become useful, like the tale about another Daywalker in ancient Mesopotamia thousands of years ago.

Scud made a face. "Damn, it's good to live nowadays and not in the Middle Ages."  
He got a banana from the shopping bag and peeled it. Hungrily he dug in. The noodles looked tasty, too, but he wasn't in the mood to cook something.

Blade took off his remaining weapons while he eyed Scud intensely. He seemed to be recovering well, his injuries didn't smell infected.

"What are you looking at?" Scud asked while finishing the banana.

"I need to check your wounds and change the dressings. Lie down."

"Sure." Scud enjoyed the thought how much he would've liked an invitation to Blade's bed under different circumstances. Well, they would get to that eventually.  
"By the way, do you have more of that nice painkiller?"

"Yes."

Scud went upstairs and slouched down on the bed.  
He heard Blade rummage around, then soon light footsteps on the metal stairway.

Blade came around the corner and placed a box on the nightstand.

Wordlessly Blade leaned over him and looked at the bandages. Then he sanitized his hands and got a syringe ready.

Scud watched as Blade injected him with the painkiller and quickly got another injection ready.

"What's that?"

"Antibiotics." 

Blade really knew what he was doing. The needle slipped quickly and painlessly into Scud's vein. His arms didn't hurt at all now or from the earlier injections.

"How do you know all this shit? You seem fucking professional at it," he asked.

Blade didn't answer.  
He sanitized his hands again and pulled a pair of scissors from the box.

Scud watched as he gently cut the bandages away.  
Damn fucking shit, that was nasty ... Scud grimaced. He laid his head back on the pillow, deciding to look at the ceiling which was the gridded floor of another walkway instead at the red cuts and stitches.  
The painkiller worked quickly and made him nicely high. Didn't really distract him, though.  
Shit ... those bitches had fucking sliced him up. He found some comfort in the thought that they were dead and burned to ash.

Applying the new dressings kinda hurt. A stark contrast to that sensation were the soft, quick touches as Blade reached underneath him to wrap elastic bandage around his body.

When Blade was done, Scud lifted his head to look at him and grinned.  
"Wanna know something, B? You're the damn sexiest doc I've ever had."

The faintest hint of a smile briefly crossed Blade's face as he leaned above him.

Scud looked into his eyes. A beautiful bright brown. Mesmerizing.  
Beautiful lips. Full and dark-colored like the rest of his skin.  
Scud wanted to kiss him again.  
 _He's so sexy and smells so good ..._

"You're damn fucking sexy, B. How 'bout another kiss?"  
Scud reached out and touched the back of his neck, feeling warm skin and firm muscle.

Blade tensed at the touch and didn't let himself be pulled closer.  
He really shouldn't kiss Scud again, it was too dangerous. Focusing away from the promise of pleasure, he resisted the temptation and pulled away from Scud's touch.  
"You should get some rest."

"Sure." Scud grinned.  
B had the hots for him, too, but it looked like Scud would've to do the seducing.  
He looked forward to it.


	6. Chapter 6

Naturally, a Scudster plan always worked. So Scud was confident this one would, too.

As he woke up by sunset after sleeping through most of the day, Blade was already up and getting ready for the hunt.

Yawning, Scud got up and stumbled towards the bathroom. He pissed and cleaned up as much as was possible without getting the bandages wet, then made it back to bed. He felt sore all over and was still kinda tired.  
He rolled a spliff and smoked it quickly, thinking about his plan. Yeah, that was truly an excellent idea ...

Now and then he heard Blade move around somewhere in the factory. Sounded like he was handling weapons and machinery.

Scud had just finished his smoke, as B stepped around the corner. Dressed like he'd been last evening.

 _Ain't he hot in all that clothes?_ Scud wondered. It was a warm summer evening.

"You going hunting again?" Scud asked him sweetly smiling.  
"I just got this great idea ..." He sat up on the edge of the bed, wincing at the discomfort the movement brought, but not really caring.  
As he'd hoped, Blade stepped closer.  
"Yeah, come here so I can show you ..."  
Blade hesitated for a moment, but he seemed to sense what Scud had in mind and like the idea.

Scud reached for his belt, grabbed him by it and pulled him close. Blade tensed but let him do it.

"I think I owe you a little thank you ..."  
Scud grinned horny.

"Enjoy ..."  
Scud opened the belt buckle. He looked quickly up at B's face. His expression was unreadable with those sunglasses in place.

Scud opened the button and zipper. He pushed the pants down on B's thighs where they were held in place by the strap with the silver stakes and the gun holster.

Blade wore black silk boxers underneath which bulged out impressively. Scud's fingers cupped his cock and balls, giving a gentle caressing squeeze while he kissed the exposed skin between the boxers' waistband and the Kevlar vest.

Yearning to explore B's body, Scud pulled his boxers down on his thighs.  
He placed both hands on his hips, sliding them around to his back and ass, then back to his front down his flat lower belly.  
Warm smooth skin. Hard muscle wherever he touched. Strong and slender. His hands seemed so pale in contrast to B's skin. Fucking sexy. Scud loved it.

Scud ran his fingers teasingly through the frizzy black hairs surrounding his beautiful cock and balls. His cock and balls were darker than the rest of his body. He was impressively big, just the way Scud liked it.

Scud took him in one hand, jerked him off with well-practiced skill.

A sharp intake of breath came from B. His cock quickly hardened and grew to an impressive size.  
Scud snuggled his face close, teasingly nibbling at the skin of B's abdomen. Damn, he smelled good ...

Scud looked up, making eye-contact with B, as he took him into his mouth.  
Wonderful ... Scud groaned as he closed his lips around the tip of his cock.

Scud was skilled at this and he made sure to show B just how skilled.  
Scud knew he was quite expert at this. He loved to suck cock.  
The barely noticeable change of B's expression spoke of Scud's success.

Scud sucked him hard and fast, making it good for B.

Blade placed his right hand on the back of Scud's head. Gloved fingers burrowed in Scud's hair and held him in place.  
Scud found it fucking hot.  
B tasted so good.  
He was enjoying himself so much.

With one hand he caressed Blade's balls. The other touched hips, ass, thighs, feeling firm muscles everywhere.

Aside from the initial groan Blade was quiet.  
With his quick, precise thrusts he was all well-restrained aggression and power that turned Scud on.

B came silently.  
Scud swallowed eagerly.

Letting go of Scud's hair, he stepped away. His softening cock slipped from Scud's mouth.  
Swallowing again and licking his lips, Scud looked up at him.

"Now you go and slay the forces of evil, my hero."  
He patted B on the ass.  
"Guess what I have for you when you come back?"

B briefly smirked while he tucked himself back in.  
He looked quite content and smugly as he walked away.

When B was gone, Scud jerked off. He was horny as hell and thinking about all the things he wanted to do to Blade, like how much he wanted that big cock up his ass. He would love to roll over, wiggle his ass at B and purr, wanna fuck me?  
And Scud knew what the answer would be. Of course Blade would fuck him. He came imaging this.

He lazed around in bed for a while, then eventually got up and went to grab some food. He looked around for something like a kitchen, which he didn't remember from his nightly excursion.  
Strangely, there was truly nothing like it.  
He wondered what the hell B ate, then shrugged and got his camping stove to cook some noodles.

While eating his noodles with ketchup, Scud thought about his travels.  
When he'd left behind California for indefinite time, he hadn't ever thought he would end up in a place like that. Despite the two stupid cunts involved he considered himself quite lucky with meeting B. This was gonna be one hell of a fun time 'til he decided to travel on.

@@@

Blade felt content and sated. The sex had gone well, offered much less of a control issue than he'd anticipated. It had been so good and pleasurable, that he wanted more and even guiltily looked forward to getting back to Scud in the morning.

The question if Scud was trustworthy or the vampires had send him for infiltration still remained. 

Scud seemed truly horny for him, not just putting up an act.  
He was sure Scud had poked his nose into about everywhere he could when he'd been alone, but he hadn't placed any bugs or sabotaged things.

For now it didn't feel like the vampires had set up this whole thing.  
Instinct told him Scud hadn't lied to him so far.

Time would tell for sure.

With reaching the city, his attention fully focused on Whistler and his plan.

It was Saturday night and the city was crowded with party goers and tourists. He sought out a parking place away from the vampires' territories.  
Casually he mixed among the crowd who had no idea about the underworld that controlled much of their city.  
As people began to stare at him, he slipped away from their attention into the darkness.

This night would be more observation, focusing on the familiars he'd picked out yesterday, to gather information he wouldn't get from interrogation alone.

@@@

Scud's night was spent exploring more of the factory.  
It was full moon and he even went outside a little, then thought of Blade's warning not to let lights be seen and returned back inside. It worked better to explore the area during daylight anyway.

Before morning he washed himself at the sink, using a small towel as a washcloth. After a glance in the mirror, he decided his hair needed a wash if he wanted to hope to get any more sex. He searched for shampoo, finding it by the shower. Bending over the sink to wash his hair damn hurt his belly. He was relieved when it was finally done and needed to rest for a moment.  
Then he shaved with B's electric shaver, much nicer than the cheap disposable razors and shaving foam he'd picked up in Vienna.  
Inspecting himself in the mirror, he decided he looked good and put his boxers back on.

He went to smoke a spliff.

When Blade came back by dawn, he'd just finished his smoke and was eating an apple.

"Yo, B, want one, too?" He held out a second apple to Blade.

"No."  
Scud thought B was kinda tense, almost like he wasn't really well, but the impression faded, as B's gaze roamed over his nearly naked body.

"Up for a little morning fun?" Scud asked suggestively.

But Blade just walked away and went upstairs.  
Scud shrugged. B was so hot, that he wasn't fazed the slightest by such behavior. Scud heard him move around on the first level gangways.

As he heard sometime later a faint sound higher up in the gangways between the machines, he acted on the horny impulse to follow B.

As Scud came up the second stairway, he saw Blade.  
And stopped dead in his tracks.  
B sat on the stairs of another stairway, clad only in his pants and boots, upper body deliciously naked.  
Left arm tied up, fist balled, a sci fi looking injector in right hand, he was just pulling the needle from the vein at the crook of his arm.  
Muscles taut and all sweaty, he trembled with obvious pain.

"Sorry, man, didn't mean to interrupt you or something ... it's all cool ..."  
Scud was about to turn around and go, thinking he'd walked in on fixing, as Blade growled, a purely animal sound that chilled Scud to the core, and looked up.  
Teeth bared.  
Very ... pointy teeth ....

_Fuck ... Are those fangs ... real?_  
_No ... It couldn't be ..._

Scud's heart raced.  
_Fuck it ... He's a fuckin' vampire ... But how ... The sunlight doesn't hurt him ... His body is warm ... Really? The bitches tricked me into thinking they're warm too ... But how the fuck can he stand the sun?_

Scud hastily backed off. He gripped the stair-rail tightly.  
"What are you? A vampire?"

Blade removed the tourniquet from his arm and stood up.  
"I'm not vampire, I'm the Daywalker."

"Daywalker?" Scud asked confused.

"The sun doesn't burn me, silver and garlic don't harm me. I've all of their strengths, but none of their weaknesses."

Scud wasn't fully getting the concept, but that didn't matter now.  
"You gonna bite me, man?"  
He took a step back.

B briefly smiled at him, fully showing his fangs. Long sharp canines, the adjacent incisors were sharply pointed, too.

"Chill, B, I'm not a good meal."

"If I wanted that I would've already done it," Blade stated cooly. He sounded almost teasing.  
"I don't drink blood," he added after a silence.

"Why?"

"I don't want to."

The answer provided a great deal of relief and confused Scud at the same time.  
"Why do you hunt them? They're sort of ... your kind?"

Blade's eyes flashed with anger.  
"I'm not like them!"

"Sorry, didn't mean it like that ..."  
The shock was nearly turning Scud's stomach.  
As he looked into B's beautiful bright eyes, he realized they were that color because he was vampire, daywalker, whatever, remembering that Janet and Chrissy had strange eyes, too.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this update took so long. I hope you'll enjoy it nevertheless :)

Scud fled down the stairs. By the time he reached the ground level, he slowed down, the instinctive impulse to flee was waning and walking this fast hurt.

He had no idea what to do now.  
Should he leave? Surprisingly, he didn't feel much like it.  
The only things he felt were confusion and shock.

So he went outside into the bright morning sun to think. He didn't bother to put anything more on, just boxers and shoes were fine.

As he stood there, he realized he still hadn't taken a good look around the area.  
There were many decrepit buildings, the factory must've been huge back then.  
What looked like former production halls was now in varying states of ruin and decay, some windows broken, some roofs collapsed.  
Industrial scrap was scattered everywhere. Soil covered much of the asphalted ground, grass and some plants grew here and there.  
What Scud could see of the surrounding area were woods and generally nature. He couldn't hear any sounds of a city, which correlated with how dark it had been at night, like there were no artificial lights at all in the vicinity.

 _If he kills me here, no one will notice a thing ..._  
That thought caused amazingly little horror. It was too unrealistic. He couldn't imagine that B really wanted to do that. 

Scud walked into the left direction and dug the tobacco from his boxer's pocket. He rolled a cig, a plain one, and lit it.

He wandered around aimlessly, registering how impossibly huge the factory grounds were and how cool some of the scattered junk was, but not really thinking about it.

What now?  
What should he do? Get the fuck away or not?  
Was he afraid of Blade?  
Actually he didn't know, but thought it wouldn't make much sense after he'd lusted for him for days now, totally unafraid.  
B wasn't a monster like those bitches. _He killed those real nice, actually, and saved my ass ..._

Rounding the back corner of a production hall, something caught his eye because it was out of place in the greys of buildings and asphalt and the greens of vegetation. Bright orange synthetic fabric, kinda like his sleeping bag ... No actually a fucking lot like his sleeping bag.

Trash piled against a wall. People must've dumped it here after the factory had closed. Big blue trash bags, small electronics, rotting pieces of furniture.  
On top of it were his tent, sleeping bag and pad. The tent was in shreds, the sleeping bag and pad had huge dark stains.  
Blood, he realized. His own dried blood, spilled when the damn bitches had attacked him.

Scud shuddered at the memory. He felt uneasy and cold in his stomach. He would be fucking dead if B hadn't shown up.  
Vague memories of how Blade had sliced up Janet and Chrissy. Pain. How Blade had carried him to his car. The drive, he didn't know how long, but for sure quite far away from Bukarest. This place. The last thing he knew from that night was how Blade had laid him on a cold steel table.  
There had been a few short moments of fear of Blade, when he'd ridiculously considered if Blade was a serial killer and gonna kill him. But prevailed had gratitude at being saved, happiness at not dying.  
Then when he'd woken up in a nice bed, in less pain, he'd been fucking happy to see Blade.

All that made it difficult to be afraid of B now, no matter that B was a vampire himself, no Daywalker, whatever the hell that was. Well, sort of vampire that didn't die from sunlight. The truly interesting thing about it was how B came to be like that. 

Scud walked away from the trash pile.  
Close by their hall, he sat down on some piled up paving stones in the sun and smoked another cigarette.

Only now he noticed a nearby clothesline with black shirts, boxers and socks. B's stuff.  
And bright blue camo print baggy pants. Scud's. The ones he'd worn at the festival. Clean, free from any blood stains. Still, looking at them made him remember Janet and Chrissy tearing into his flesh.  
He found he liked to think about how B had killed the vampires, how they'd burst into ashes. Quite calming and it made him feel safe.

As he sat there, the emotional turmoil calmed down. The shock that B was kinda vampire lost its initial horror and Scud soon found that he didn't really care.  
Actually it was somehow fucking cool. A vampire hunter who was sorta vampire himself.  
Scud grinned.  
Hanging out with B for some time promised all the excitement and adventure he'd hoped for when he'd run from the boredom and craziness of his former life. And lots of fun. B was so fucking hot and sexy. He knew it was thinking with his cock, but didn't care.

Scud stayed at his sitting place. Eventually, when the sun was high on the sky and it was getting too warm and too bright, Blade came out of the hall.  
No coat and stuff, just a tank top and his shiny fabric trousers and sunglasses and a single gun. He carried a plastic basket.  
Vampire, hell, Daywalker, Scud reminded himself at the sight of how the sunlight poured over him, accentuating his sharp, stern features and the sculpted muscles of his arms, shoulders and chest, highlighting his tattoos.

As B walked past him to the clothesline, Scud stared at his broad shoulders, slim waist and round, tight ass which was nicely accentuated by the thin fabric of his trousers. 

Scud watched him taking the dried clothes from the line and placing them into the basket. He enjoyed the view of how the bulges and lines of his muscles tightened and shifted with the movement.

Blade came back to Scud, stood in front of him, shading him from the sun. Scud looked up at him.  
"Want me to drop you off in Bukarest?" he asked in a cool, neutral tone. His expression was difficult to read behind those shades.  
Now that he looked for it Scud caught a glimpse at brightly white fangs as B spoke.

"No," Scud said.

He could see that Blade was surprised at the answer.

"Well, you ain't gonna get rid of me so easily." Scud grinned.

B's lips twitched with the ghost of a smile.  
"You ain't afraid?"

"Not much." Scud shrugged. "You're way too hot for that."  
He couldn't imagine that B would really want to hurt him. He wasn't like Janet and Chrissy.

Blade just looked at him for a long moment, then gave him a true smile, actually showing fangs, and walked away into the hall.

Pleased with himself, Scud grinned. Lots of fun ahead, indeed.  
After some time, he followed B inside and got himself a glass of water. Leaning against the steel table, he watched as B cleaned a gun.

"So, what did you inject yourself with?" he asked.

"Serum," Blade answered without looking up from the gun parts.

"What?"

"A blood substitute." Blade's voice revealed no emotion whatsoever. 

Curious. But Scud thought he was beginning to understand this.  
"What about food? I haven't seen you eat or drink anything yet."

"It's possible to eat, but food has no appeal."  
Blade started to put the gun back together.

"What do you live on?"

"The serum replaces blood as nourishment."

"What about animal blood?"

"Less disgusting than food, but it provides no nourishment as well."

Scud assumed things were the same for the vampires. Human blood only.

"Do you age?" He was curious what else was similar.

"Like a pureblood vampire," Blade replied nonchalantly.

"Wow, so you're like ... a few centuries old?" Scud stared at him in awe. How fucking cool was that? He knew what B had told him about vampires. Born vampires lived for centuries, turned ones didn't age which made them basically immortal. 

"Not yet. But I'll be around for a long time to hunt vampires." Blade put the last part of the gun in place and looked up. 

"How comes you can withstand the sun, silver and garlic?"

"Because I'm the Daywalker." B's gaze forbade any more questions.  
Scud looked after him as he walked away.  
Damn fucking cool. He so needed to find out more about B. He would eventually, he just had not to rush things.


End file.
